A New Start
by DuskingMorning21
Summary: Aimi's village is destroyed, leaving everyone in the village dead except her team and little brother, and they travel to the Hidden Leaf Village for a new life. As Aimi trains to become stronger after her brother is kidnapped, she discovers a secret from her past that her parents tried to hide, as well as several love interests along the way.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It was a bright, sunshine filled day in the Hidden Tree Village, and Takao Oono's team, a trio of three genin who had been together for roughly a year now, could be found training with their sensei in the large unknown practice field that was several miles away from the village. The field was shielded from view of outsiders, but the team knew of it — it had been their little secret for many months now. More often than not, the team members, whether together or not, would venture out to the field just to get away from the ever so busy Hidden Tree Village. It was a very peaceful place — when they weren't training.

Which is exactly what they were doing now. Aimi Ookami, the youngest of her team, was currently sparing one-on-one against their sensei, Takao Oono. Her companion, Nanami, a small wolf, black in color with a grey face, was perched on her shoulder, doing her best to keep an eye on Takao-sensei and help Aimi hold her own against the twenty-nine-year old man. Takao-sensei was casually leaning against the trunk of a tree, a bored expression on his face. Aimi, kunai in hand, charged him from behind.

"Too slow!" Takao-sensei yelled over his shoulder to Aimi before disappearing from sight.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" exclaimed Aimi, skidding to a halt. She quickly glanced around, looking for her sensei, but she couldn't spot him. Agitated, she looked to her teammate Shuji Kudo, a tall, muscular boy with coffee black hair and dark eyes. He was the oldest of the group, and many would consider him the leader of the group — if it weren't for Aimi. "Where'd he go?"

"About twenty feet to the left, at the top of tree with that missing chunk at the base of the trunk," Shuji said, sounding rather bored as he and Ren Gato, a slender boy with mousey brown hair and large blue eyes relaxed under the shade provided by a large tree.

Without turning, Aimi threw two kunai at the tree and there was the sound of metal on metal. It was followed by the sound of rustling leaves as Takao-sensei jumped down from the three, smiling in an approving manner.

"Good aim, Aimi — keep a closer eye on me, though, and use your ears — you have amazing eye sight and hearing thanks to your blood line, so don't be afraid to use that to your advantage," said Takao-sensei, seeming impressed all the same.

"Sorry, Sensei," Aimi said with a small, short bow, the sun glaring down harshly on her fair, freckled skin. "I'll work on it."

"Still, you did well today — all of you. Now it's time to —"

Aimi stopped listening — her ears twitched; she could hear the sound of a high-pitched intermediate alarm. Her stomach dropped, as if someone had plopped a large stone into it.

"The alarm," she whispered, barely audible.

"What was that, Aimi?" Takao-sensei said.

"Don't you hear it?" Aimi said, her voice rising with panic. "The village alarm! I can hear it! The village must be —"

There was loud explosion, and the team faced the direction of the Hidden Tree Village, and their eyes widened as a large cloud of black smoke began billowing up into the air. Any trace of happiness that may have been on their faces vanished, leaving very grave expressions on each of them. Takao-sensei looked to his students.

"We have to hurry back to the village! All of you are to report to your house — try to avoid any trouble. See if you can get your family out of there alive; however, you mustn't risk your lives," he said sternly — Aimi rarely saw Takao-sensei take on his serious persona unless they were on a mission. "We'll meet back here in an hour. If one of us is late, the rest of us will go searching for the missing one — do we all understand this? We don't know the enemy; we don't know their numbers, and we don't know their strengths. This can range from a D-rank mission all the way to an S-rank mission. You must approach this with as much caution as possible."

"Yes, sir!" the three genin said, saluting to him before taking off.

"Aimi, hold on," Takao-sensei said, grabbing the young girl by the wrist. "I want you to be especially careful — watch your temper, and try to keep calm."

"Right," she said shortly, giving her sensei a reassuring nod.

He released her wrist and Aimi took off, traveling towards her village at top speed, Nanami now running by her side instead of hitching a ride on her shoulder.

Aimi was a young girl, only twelve years old. She had long curly red hair that swept down to her butt, and she had emerald green eyes. She was a petite girl, barely reaching four-foot-ten, and she was rather thin with a boyishly flat chest. She wore a loose, green tunic-like shirt that ended several inches above her naval with sleeves that were baggy and reached her elbows. She wore tight black spandex shorts that went half way down her thighs, and her village headband was tied around her waist, acting like a belt. Across her back was her favorite weapon — her katana. She kept her other, smaller weapons in a pouch that was attached to her right thigh. On her left shoulder was a black paw print — the mark of her clan. She had no apparent ears, but no one noticed she actually had wolf ears — a side effect of her bloodline that every clan member had. However, her ears blended in well with her hair, appearing as tuffs of hair that refused to lie down flat because she always made sure to keep her ears hidden on her head.

Aimi was very fast when it came to running — she was one of the fastest genin in her class. So, it was no surprise to her when she reached the Hidden Tree Village within a matter of minutes. However, when she was the scene that played out before her very eyes, she wanted nothing more than to turn on her heel and flee from the horrendous image.

The village on fire — masked men were running around the village, setting any building or person in sight ablaze; men, women, and children alike were being slaughtered before her very eyes; sorrowful sobs, panic-stricken screams, and desperate cries for help were filling the air, making it almost impossible to hear anything else but that. Aimi found herself looking around the village in despair — could this _really_ be her home?

Suddenly, Aimi was pushed forward, and she stumbled, trying her best to stay on her feet. Glancing behind her, she saw that it was Ren Gato who had pushed her forward.

"Go, Aimi!" he shouted, encouraging her to run. Numbly, she started to shuffle towards her house, but she was still facing Ren. He sighed and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Aimi! Snap out of it! Listen to me — we'll be okay! Go to your house, see if everyone is okay. Once you do that, head straight back!"

Aimi, feeling back to her normal self, nodded, though she was still a bit nervous about the entire thing. "Okay, I got it — be careful, Ren."

"You too, Aimi," he said before running off.

Taking a deep breath, Aimi looked at Nanami, who looked just a shocked by the scene as Aimi was. However, the small wolf had the same determination as Aimi, so when the young girl ran off, Nanami was quick to follow suit. The two ran towards the house, and Aimi could feel her heart racing, her mind distracted with questions that began to fly through her mind. Were her parents okay? Was Hiraku, her little brother, okay? She couldn't stand the thought of her family being in danger.

Aimi arrived at her house, an average sized, modern day house on the edge of the village near the woods. When she saw her home, she let out a cry — her house was surrounded by flames, smoke billowing out from the top.

"Mom! Dad! Hiraku!" Aimi screamed, running to the door, which had been kicked down. She couldn't go into the house due to a wall of flames that blocked her entrance. She looked to Nanami. "Find a way out of the house that isn't too bad," she instructed. When Nanami gave her a quizzical look, she said, "You're going to think I'm crazy, but I'm going in — I have to see if they're okay."

Nanami nodded — she knew there was no way to change Aimi's mind. So, as the small wolf ran off to go search for an exit, Aimi faced the wall of flames — Takao-sensei would kill her later. She backed away from the door way, took a deep breath, got a running start, and leapt through the roaring flames. Aimi rolled onto the floor and ended up on her feet. Wasting no time, she went left into the kitchen — through the flames, she couldn't spot anything. She went towards her father's study — nothing. The dining room — nothing. The living room — nothing. Aimi could feel a small spark of hope — maybe her family had gotten out of the flames. However, she still needed to check the den before moving upstairs, and she could tell the house was beginning to get unstable, and the threat of the house collapsing on her was growing even more and more. Her skin had long since blistered due to the heat even though she hadn't been in the house for more than a minute or two.

Aimi went to the last room on the lower floor of the house and froze — the den, which was beginning to be eaten away by flames, was covered in blood splatter. Her eyes began to water from both the smoke and the sight of her parents lying face down on the floor in a pool of their own blood, their wolf companions beside them. She ran into the room and fell to her knees beside her mother, a beautiful redheaded woman. Swallowing back tears, Aimi turned her mother open and gasped — her mother's face was bloodied and bruised, and her body was covered in puncture wounds and many other gut wrenching injuries, but Aimi couldn't believe it — her mother was breathing. It was faint, almost inaudible, but she could hear it.

"Mom," Aimi whimpered. "Mommy? Can you hear me?"

Her mother groaned and coughed, blood splattering Aimi's clothes. Her brown eyes opened halfway, and Aimi could see they were beginning to turn glossy. "A-Aimi," she managed to say.

Aimi felt tears streak down her face. "M-mom!" She began to make hand signs. "Mom, j-just sit still — I-I can apply some f-first-aid! Is Dad. . . ?"

Her mother shook her head. She began to speak low and quickly, and Aimi knew there was nothing that could be done for her mother. "It's too late for your father, and it's too late for me. . . . Listen, Aimi. . . . Take your brother out of this house. . . . He's in. . . . The hallway. . . . Closet. . . . Get out of here. . . ."

"But, Mom —"

"Go, Aimi," she coughed, splattering more blood. "Nothing can be done for us. . . . But know that. . . . Your father and I. . . . Are very proud of you and your accomplishments. . . . Now. . . . Go."

Her mother's eyes closed completely, and Aimi slowly placed her mother's head back on the floor. She was still crying, so she hastily wiped away the tears — get Hiraku. That was what her mother wanted her to do, so that's exactly was she would do. Aimi ran towards the exit of the den, but quickly jumped back as a flaming beam fell from the ceiling — the house was beginning to collapse! Knowing she had limited time, she covered her mouth and nose and leapt over the beam, quickly taking off towards the closet, dodging flames as she went. Not bothering to waste time, she kicked open the closet door, which earned a loud cry from Hiraku. His pale skin was smudged with dirt, and his red hair looked like the flames that were consuming their house. His bright green eyes were wide with fear.

"MONSTER!" he screamed, hiding his face in his hands as most five-year-olds would do.

"No, Hiraku, it's me," Aimi said roughly as she picked up the small trembling boy in her arms.

The next thing she knew, Hiraku had his thin arms wrapped tightly around her neck as he yelled, "Aimi! You're here! Mom and Dad. . . . They were —"

"I know, Hiraku," she said quickly. "Listen, sweetie, I need you to be really strong for me, okay? I have to focus right now on getting the two of us out of here alive, okay? So you need to be really quiet. Nanami is supposed to be waiting for us at an exit point outside, so I have to listen really hard to try and hear her bark, understand?"

Hiraku nodded and she held him tight. "Alright, Nanami," Aimi called out. "I need to hear you bark!"

She closed her eyes and listened intently for the sound of Nanami's high-pitched barks. For a moment, all she could hear was the loud creaks of the house as it threatened to trap Aimi in its flaming depths. However, the sound of Nanami's high-pitched yelps cut through the sound of the creaking house and roaring flames. Following the sound, Aimi was led to the window at the end of the hall. Glancing out of it, she saw the small wolf standing by the window, letting out loud barks. So, Aimi placed Hiraku on the ground, though he clung to her leg immediately, and she clenched her eyes shut before plunging her fist through the window. The glass shattered and Aimi picked up Hiraku, carefully putting him through the window, making sure not to let him cut himself on the glass. Then, Aimi hopped through the window, being more careless and cutting herself in several places.

Once she was out of the house, she wasted no time to brush herself off. She picked up Hiraku and paused, allowing Nanami to perch herself on Aimi's shoulder. She had roughly twenty minutes — she could make it if she didn't make any detours and ran straight there. So, trying to move quickly, Aimi ran straight towards the field.

As Aimi ran, though, something caught her eye and she stopped — a figure wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it stood in front of her, their back turned towards her. Shivering in fear before the figure was a mother begging for mercy as her child clung to her desperately, both crying hysterically. Aimi's heart began to beat violently as she saw the figure allow a sword drop from his sleeve. She had to do something, but she remembered Takao-sensei's instructions — avoid trouble. Don't risk their lives. However, she reminded herself that she had already broken the rules once, so breaking them again wouldn't do too much harm. Quickly, she placed Hiraku and Nanami down on the ground and faced the man, drawing her katana.

"Leave them alone!" Aimi said, trying her best to sound calm and confident.

The figure paused and turned slowly, and Aimi saw it was a man. He had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and his eyes were a cold onyx black color. He was tall and slender, and he had two noticeable lines that went down his face. He said nothing, but just stared at Aimi, no trace of emotion on his face. He wore a headband on his forehead — the symbol on his headband was unfamiliar to her, but she could see a line had been cut through it.

"I said leave them alone," Aimi said again, this time more forcefully — the fear and anger building up inside of her was making her more bold than usual.

There was barely any sound, and the man moved with such speed that it took Aimi's breath away — for several reasons. To people with normal eye sight, it may have seemed like the man only twitched. But to Aimi, whose brain slowed down the process, she saw the man swing his arm at incredible speeds and watched as the sword took off the heads of the innocent mother and child. Her jaw dropped and Hiraku let out a yell.

"That man!" he shouted. "He's the one — he's the one who killed Mommy and Daddy!"

Aimi had had enough — the village, her parents, the mother and child —if what Hiraku said was true, then this man was responsible for many emotional blows. She dropped her katana with a clatter.

"I swear to God," she growled, her body beginning to change — she had lost her temper and was beginning to transform — yet another rule broken. "I will kill you, you worthless, sad excuse for a human being!"

Aimi heard a dark chuckle, but it didn't come from the man standing before her. Instead it came from a man who came from behind the man with the black hair. This man appeared to be part shark — he had blue skin and hair, and what appeared to be gills on the side of his face. He had a large sword on his back that was wrapped in bandages, and he wore the same cloak as the other man.

"You're really going to waste your time with this weakling, Itachi?" the man with the gills sighed.

"Be patient, Kisame," said Itachi. "Watch."

Aimi's transformation was complete — the color from the world was gone, and Aimi's perspective was closer to the ground. She was in her wolf form, which was all thanks to a mutation in her DNA. The members of the Ookami Clan would transform during the full moon without any choice, and during the Harvest moon, the transformation would be permanent for three days straight — they wouldn't even shift back during the day. However, Aimi had a mutation in her genes that allowed her to transform at any point in time, but only when she was incredibly angry.

The gill man, Kisame, and Itachi were watching Aimi with interest. She bared her fangs at the two of them, but neither of them seemed frightened. Instead, they seemed interested in her ability.

"I wonder," muttered Kisame. "Mind if I steal the spot light, Itachi? I want to see what she's capable of. But don't worry — I won't let her suffer too long."

Aimi's eyes widened as Itachi made a small gesture with his hand and Kisame stepped forward, a devilish grin on his face. "This will be fun," he hissed.

He swung his large sword at Aimi, but she leapt up, barely managing to dodge it. She landed several feet to the right and darted under Kisame's legs. Kisame turned, and, with Aimi's back to him, he swung and caught her hind legs with his sword. She yelped and stumbled — her hind legs had somehow been torn up by his seemingly dull sword. She pulled herself back up, but it wasn't easy. Looking back at her legs, she saw that the flesh on her legs hadn't been cut, but shaved.

"Impressive," said Itachi. "She managed to get back up."

"I'll make sure she doesn't next time though," growled Kisame.

He swung again at Aimi, but she jumped out of the way, once again barely dodging the attack. Kisame swung again and cut Aimi's left cheek. She stumbled back, the pain paralyzing. She could hear the worried cries from Nanami and Hiraku from the side, but she couldn't focus on that, because Kisame was coming in for another attack. She jumped, but not soon enough, and the sword shaved away the skin on her right side.

As Aimi fell to the ground, writhing in pain, Kisame laughed and said, "If you want, I'd be glad to share the secret of my sword with you."

Aimi growled lowly, panting heavily, and she struggled to get to her feet. Kisame glared down at her, and Itachi just watched, no trace of emotion on his face, and said, "You must admire her determination."

"That's it," Kisame growled. "You're —"

_"Don't touch her!"_

Aimi looked up and saw a large figure land in front of her — Takao-sensei. He had fire in his eyes, a look of pure hated directed towards Kisame and Itachi. She felt instantly safer, as she knew that Takao-sensei was an extremely powerful ninja, despite his young age. Then, Shuji and Ren were beside her, both looking ready to fight.

"You and your friends have come into my village and destroyed it. You've killed our friends, family, neighbors. . . . You've killed my wife and daughters. And now you think you can get away with harming my students?" He drew his most famous weapon — a large, deadly sword that he carried with him wherever he went. "I promise you, that is one huge mistake, and I'll make sure it will be the last mistake you ever make."

Itachi held up his hand. "There is no need for your threats — my "friends", as you so call them, and I are done here. We were only here on command. You need not to use violence against us. We'll be gone soon enough. But just know that this will not be the last time you see us — our paths will cross again, I can assure you of that."

With his last words spoken, Itachi and Kisame quickly vanished, leaving Aimi, Nanami, Takao, Ren and Shuji all alone. That's when Aimi heard it — that's when she heard nothing. No screaming. No crying. No one calling out for help. Just the sound of wood crackling as it slowly burned.

Hiraku stood and ran to Aimi, burying his face in her furry neck. She flinched at the pain, but she knew that Hiraku feeling safe and secure was much more important than anything else at that point in time.

"Aimi," he sobbed — he was shaking uncontrollably. "Aimi, I was so scared. . . . I thought he was going to kill you!"

Aimi just nuzzled against him and licked his nose. Hiraku laughed playfully and smiled weakly — Aimi knew it'd be a while before he'd ever smile in a carefree way that a child should.

"Aimi," said Ren, looking down at the red wolf, "are your parents. . . . You know. . . . Dead?"

Aimi could only nod.

"It's the same with us," said Shuji, his black hair wet with sweat and his dark eyes full of sorrow. Ren's mousey brown hair was a mess and his eyes were a dark blue.

"We'll be fine," said Takao. "All of us. First, I'm going to take care of Aimi — you need those wounds taken care of quickly, and I want you to rest. Those men. . . . They were S-rank criminals, Aimi, and you're lucky you aren't dead."

Aimi froze — S-rank criminals? She had just fought an S-rank criminal? That would explain why Takao-sensei didn't compliment Aimi on saving Hiraku. Takao-sensei made a few hand signs and when his hands began glowing green, he placed his hands over her wounds, and slowly, Aimi could feel the pain ebbing away. Hiraku went back over to Nanami and stroked her soft fur, and Aimi knew that it would help keep him calm.

"Ren, Shuji — you two go around the village. I want you to look for any survivors, and if you find anyone who is still alive, bring them back here. Got it?" said Takao as tended to Aimi's injuries.

"Got it," they said before they both took off.

When they were gone, Takao-sensei spoke.

"While I'm glad you could save your brother, I have to scold you," said Takao-sensei. "You went against my rules — first of all, you obviously lost your temper, though I can't say I blame you. However, you broke the most important rule — don't put yourself in danger. So what do you do? You go ahead and challenge two S-rank criminals. And I'm sure getting Hiraku was no walk in the park either. However, you did save him — I'm glad you could save someone."

Aimi just nodded — thoughts of seeing her parents lying on the ground, her mother's final words invaded her mind. With the adrenaline finally wearing off, Aimi was beginning to feel the pain and sadness that had been suppressed for the last few moments. She laid her head on the ground, whimpering softly and sadly.

Takao-sensei sighed and said, "I know you're hurting right now, but things will get better. You, Hiraku, Nanami, the boys, and I are going to the Hidden Leaf Village — I know the current Hokage, and if I can get a letter to him shortly after we leave, he could probably get a place for us to stay ready. It's about two days' worth of travel, maybe a little longer because of Hiraku. . . ."

Aimi looked at Takao-sensei quizzically — how could he talk about leaving the village? He seemed unaware of the fact that his wife and children were killed and the entire village was just destroyed.

Takao-sensei picked up on her confusion.

"I don't want to stay here, Aimi," he said. "Why should we? I honestly doubt there are any survivors. My wife and daughters are gone. My house has been burned to the ground, and soon, the entire village will be nothing but ashes. You're parents, Ren's family, Shuji's family. . . . Hiraku doesn't need to be surrounded by so much death; so many bad memories. A change of scenery might be good for him."

Aimi nodded slowly — Takao-sensei sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and there really wasn't much here for them anymore. However, this place was her home. For as long as she could remember — she couldn't remember anything before the age of seven, but according to her parents, there was some sort of accident that caused that.

"Aimi," Takao-sensei whispered. "You've changed back."

Aimi looked down and blushed — sure enough, she had changed back. However, whenever Aimi changed back, she was naked. She looked over at Nanami, who ran over with Aimi's clothes bunched up and in her mouth. Takao-sensei turned his back to her, giving her some privacy — Takao-sensei had grown used to seeing Aimi like this, for Aimi had lost her temper countless times, especially on missions.

So, after Aimi changed, she said, "We're going to leave then?"

Takao-sensei nodded and turned to face her. "I think that'd be best — we can pick up some supplies. I don't know if all the stores were burned down, so there may be some things that we could scrounge up before we head out."

Nanami let out a sudden bark, causing Aimi and Takao-sensei to jump. Hiraku looked up and said, "It's Ren and Shuji."

They turned and Aimi's stomach dropped — the boys were all alone.

"There were no survivors?" Aimi said.

Ren shook his head. "There is no one. We're the only ones left. We're the last of the Hidden Tree Village."

"Those men were ruthless," said Shuji. "I've never seen so much death . . . and in such a short amount of time. . . . "

"We can't worry about that now," said Takao-sensei as he finished healing Aimi. "As I've been telling Aimi, I think it'd be best if we left the village."

Ren opened his mouth to protest, but Shuji cut him off.

"You're right, Takao-sensei," said Shuji. "There is nothing for us here. But where will we go?"

No one seemed to notice that Ren was glaring sharply at Shuji.

"I was thinking we could go to the Hidden Leaf Village," said Takao-sense. "I know the Hokage —and we would have had to travel there within the next month anyway,"  
"Why would we be going?" said Ren.

"The Chunin Exams," said Aimi and Shuji simultaneously.

"What's that?" said Ren.

"We don't really have time to worry about why we're going, much less explain the Chunin Exams," said Takao-sensei, cutting off Shuji, who had opened him mouth to explain. "We need to go and scavenge the village, collect what supplies we'll need, and then we need to go. Understood?"

"Yes, sensei," said the three genin.

Hiraku walked up to Takao-sensei, his eyes big and sweet. "Mr. Takao, why . . . why are we leaving?" Hiraku asked.

"We're going to go somewhere that isn't so . . . plagued with death. How does that sound to you?"

Hiraku didn't say a thing, but just nodded softly, and Aimi could see how much it bothered him. It was hard to see him hurt so much.

"We'll be okay, Hiraku," said Aimi softly, walking over to him. Hiraku looked away from her, not wanting to meet her gaze.

"You don't know that," Hiraku muttered.

"Well, you're right," said Aimi. "But you don't know if we won't be."

"I know," Hiraku whimpered, "but —"

"But nothing," Aimi said. "If Takao-sensei says that going to the Hidden Leaf Village is the best thing for us, then that's where we'll go — understand?"

Hiraku didn't object — he usually didn't when Aimi got serious. Aimi patted his head, flattening his red hair, and tickling his wolf ears. She stood, feeling much better now that she had been healed. However, her skin was still burned, and the wounds she received from Kisame weren't completely gone either, so the pain hadn't entirely vanished. She chose to ignore it though.

Hiraku took Aimi's hand, his tiny, soft fingers slipping between her longer, tougher ones.

"Okay," said Aimi. "Let's gather our things and leave — I want to leave all this behind."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Is that it? Is that Konaha?"

Hiraku sounded excited for the first time in a while. It had been three days since the raid of their village — not a single person survived aside from Team Takao and Hiraku, Aimi's little brother. After traveling for so long, Aimi could sense Hiraku was growing very weary of walking. She had offered to carry him, but being a five-year-old boy, he found being carried by his sister embarrassing. More often than not, he would ask Takao-sensei to carry him. Aimi was proud of him all the same though for being so brave about the entire situation. He really didn't slow them down too terribly either. They were a day behind schedule, but even Takao-sensei was impressed with the timing they made.

Takao-sensei nodded. "That would be correct, Hiraku — we'll be there in ten minutes at the most. They have already received my messenger hawk, and the Hokage did write a response saying he would have our house ready for us by the time we arrived — I have the letter he sent back just in case there are any questions."

Aimi looked down at Nanami, who walked happily beside her, and smiled. "You hear that, Nanami? We're almost there! We'll finally have running water — _hot_ running water!"

Nanami let out a happy bark, and Shuji rolled his eyes at his teammate's moment of femininity. "Typical — running water beats out everything else. . . . What a girl. . . ."

Ren chuckled a bit, and Aimi glared at the two boys. "For your information, I've had to bathe in rivers the past few days. Unlike you boys, I don't feel comfortable about going days without washing up — and that water was really cold!"

"Not our fault you can't stand the thought of staying dirty," Shuji said with a shrug, sticking his hands in his pockets and lazily closing his eyes.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?" Aimi muttered, rolling her eyes at him even though she knew he didn't notice.

"We've really made great timing," said Ren. "So, Aimi, how are your wounds healing?"

"Very well," Aimi said, turning to smile at Ren. "For the most part, they're all gone, except my skin is still raw where that Kisame guy hit me with his sword."

Aimi was a quick healer — due to her blood line, she could recover quickly from serious wounds. It was both a blessing and a curse — when she was nine, she broke her right pinkie, and it healed before they could set it, and now it was extremely crooked.

"I'm hungry," Hiraku said suddenly.

"Just be patient," Aimi said. "We'll be there shortly."

"But I'm hungry," said Hiraku, threatening a temper tantrum.

"Hiraku, listen to your sister," Takao-sensei said sternly. Sure enough, Hiraku quieted down, and when Aimi looked at Takao-sensei, mystified, he just shrugged and said, "I know how to handle kids — I had three of them."

"You still have us," Aimi said quickly when she saw the sorrow creeping back into her sensei's face — it was hard to believe it had only been three days since their village had been destroyed.

"Well put," said Takao-sensei, patting Aimi's shoulder. Then he stopped walking. "We're here."

Aimi looked up. They stood in front of two large wooden doors that stretched fifty feet up into the air. A guard out front looked at the five of them, sizing them up. He was mostly interested Takao-sensei, which was no surprise, seeing as how he was the oldest and most threatening looking of the group.

"State your business," said the guard, his eyes narrowed at Takao.

"My name is Takao Oono, and these are my students Aimi Ookami, Ren Gato, and Shuji Kudo, along with Nanami and Hiraku Ookami, family members of Aimi. We hail from the Hidden Tree Village, which was raided and destroyed three days ago. My team and I are the only survivors of the attack. I sent the Hokage a message telling him of our arrival, and he responded with this letter." Takao-sensei handed the guard a letter that he had kept in his pocket.

The guard read over it quickly, and he nodded, handing it back to Takao, quickly bowing. "It's such a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Oono — my deepest regrets for the loss of your village." Then he turned and shouted, "Open the doors!"

The large doors swung open and Aimi smiled — the village was beautiful and filled with young children of all ages, including several that appeared to be Aimi's age, and many parents. Takao-sensei nodded to the guards as he and his students passed through the doors into the large village. Hiraku was immediately drawn to Aimi's side, taking her hand in his. Takao pulled out a small scroll, opened it, looked around as if he was gathering his surroundings, and then nodded. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag that jingled merrily as he removed it from his pocket, letting everyone know that it surly contained money. He handed the small bag to Aimi, who he considered the most responsible of the trio.

"I have some business to take care of — I have to go see the Hokage. I want you five to go find some place to eat — I've been here a couple times, and if I'm not mistaken, which I don't think I am, there should be a nice ramen shop around here, somewhere. I think the name was something like Ichiraku Ramen? I'm not quite sure, but see if you can find it — I'll come for you all within the hour."

Before they could say anything or ask any questions, Takao-sensei walked off, leaving the group by themselves, which greatly annoyed Shuji.

"And exactly_ how_ does he expect us to get there? None of us have ever been outside the Hidden Tree Village — we have no idea where to go," he growled, obviously irritated.

"Maybe it's a test to see how well we can adapt to our new surroundings?" Ren suggested. "You know how much he loves to challenge us — I'm sure he just wants to see us branch out."

"That's a good point, Ren," said Aimi "He probably wants us to meet new people in these unfamiliar surroundings — maybe make some new friends? I saw a few people around our age just a few moments ago."

"That's so stupid," Shuji muttered. "Why do we have to meet new people and make 'friends'?"

"Well, this is our new home," Aimi reminded him.

"I'm hungry!" Hiraku announced once more, obviously not caring much about the ongoing conversation between the trio.

"Okay," Ren said, scanning their surroundings. "I guess we need to find someone. . . ."

_"HIYA!"_

Aimi yelped and stumbled back, narrowly avoiding stepping on Nanami's tail. She saw a short boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had three whisker-like markings on each cheek — it appeared he was the one responsible for the loud outburst.

"Uh . . . hi," said Aimi, placing a hand on Hiraku's shoulder — he had thrown his arms around Aimi when the boy shouted.

"You guys are new here, right? You don't look familiar, that's why I'm asking," the boy said, talking very fast.

Aimi took in his bright orange jumpsuit and seemingly high-strong jumpsuit — while he did seem nice, Aimi couldn't help but get the feeling that there was something different about him; whether it was good or bad though, she couldn't tell.

"So, because we're new, you had to scare us?" Shuji said bitterly, causing Aimi to roll her eyes — Shuji was known for being the grump of the group.

"No, I had to introduce myself," said the boy, not picking up on Shuji's attitude. "The name is Naruto Uzumaki!"

"It's nice to meet you, Naruto," said Aimi with a gentle smile — he seemed nice enough. "My name is Aimi Ookami, and this is Nanami." As she said this, the small wolf leapt up onto her shoulder.

"She's my sister," said Hiraku proudly, starting to come out of his shell. "My name is Hiraku!"

"Shuji Kudo," said Shuji shortly.

"And my name is Ren Gato," Ren said after jabbing Shuji in the side with his elbow.

"It's nice to meet you guys! So, where are you all from? I don't recognize your headband," Naruto said, studying the headband around Aimi's waist.

Aimi looked at Naruto's headband as Ren began to speak, and when she saw the symbol on his headband, her legs went numb — the symbol on Naruto's headband was that same symbol that had been on Itachi's, only his had no line drawn through the strange marking. She realized Naruto was talking to her, and she shook her head, clearing her thoughts of Itachi and Kisame — she couldn't think of that right now. As she looked back at Naruto, she noticed a young boy and girl around their age had joined him.

"Sorry," said Aimi. "I was distracted."

"It's fine," said Naruto with a smile. "I was saying that these are my teammates, Sakura and —"

"We can introduce ourselves, idiot," scoffed a girl with pink hair, punching Naruto in the back of the head before smiling at Aimi, Shuji, Hiraku, Ren, and Nanami. "I'm Sakura Haruno."

Aimi noticed a boy with black hair and onyx eyes standing beside her — his eyes looked strikingly familiar. Sort of like — she wouldn't allow herself to finish the thought and immediately smiled at the girl.

"Nice to meet you," said Aimi. She looked to the boy. "And you are?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," he said shortly, reminding Aimi of Shuji's sour attitude.

"Sorry if Naruto was bothering you," said Sakura. "He can be _so_ annoying sometimes."

"Actually," Aimi interjected, "Naruto was helping us out — I was about to ask him if he knew where Ichiraku Ramen was?"

"Why can't you find it yourselves?" muttered Sasuke.

"Because we're new here, idiot — our village was destroyed, and we were the only survivors, so our sensei made us move here, and now we have to find this stupid ramen stand. So sorry for asking directions," Shuji snapped, matching Sasuke's attitude.

"Your village was . . . destroyed?" Naruto asked, his eyes now wide.

They all nodded and Hiraku huddled close to Aimi who said, "Yes, it was. Our sensei had us come here to try our best to move on."

"And you're . . . the only survivors?" said Sakura.

"Us and our sensei," said Ren.

"Jeez, Sasuke, say sorry," said Naruto, elbowing Sasuke.

He remained silent, and Hiraku said once again, "I'm hungry!"

Aimi smiled lightly — her brother could change the subject on a dime. Naruto smiled. "Oh, yeah, you guys wanted me to show you to Ichiraku! If you guys want, I can join you for a meal?" He offered with a huge smile — Aimi realized that he was an extremely friendly person and didn't really seem to know a stranger.

"We'll come too!" piped up Sakura as she took Sasuke by the arm.

"Oh great," Shuji muttered, "as if one wasn't enough."

Ten minutes later, Aimi, Hiraku, Nanami, Shuji, and Ren were sitting at Ichiraku with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. They found out that Naruto and his friends were also genin, but they had only been a team for a few months, unlike Aimi, Ren, and Shuji, who had been together for roughly a year. Their sensei was a man named Kakashi, and from what Aimi could tell by their description of him, he seemed rather lazy and unenthusiastic about being a sensei. She also had drawn several parallels between their teams — Shuji and Sasuke had the same arrogant, bitter attitude; Ren was smart and sensible, like Sakura; this left Aimi and Naruto — the two were very similar with their attitudes, as Aimi was high strong and friendly like Naruto. However, she had a gut feeling that they were alike in more ways than one, but she couldn't figure out what it was exactly.

"Wow," said Sakura as Aimi finished telling them about the day their village was destroyed, leaving out the apart about Itachi and Kisame. "So your village — your _entire village_ was destroyed in less than an hour?"

"Those guys were there for one reason — to create havoc, and in some sick sense, they did exactly what they went there to do," said Aimi as their food was placed in front of them. She placed a napkin on Hiraku's lap and handed him his chopsticks. "Alright, I want you to eat all of that, okay?"

"But —"

"Hiraku, you've been complaining about how hungry you were for the past half an hour," Aimi sighed.

"Yeah, but I want dessert! I don't want ramen!"

"Hiraku," said Aimi, taking on the same stern tone Takao-sensei used earlier. "I want you to eat your ramen now — if you can finish all of that _and _you still have room, then we'll go find the sweetest, most delicious dessert in the entire village, and we'll split it — does that sound fair to you?"

Hiraku nodded eagerly and began to scarf down his ramen quickly — Aimi was nervous he might choke on his meal. So, keeping an eye on her brother, she began to eat her own ramen and was surprised how amazing it tasted — ramen this great was hard to come by in the Hidden Tree Village, so the fact that this was the local ramen shop impressed Aimi greatly, and she couldn't help but get the feeling that she, Hiraku, and Nanami would make frequent visits here.

"It's sweet," said Sakura suddenly as she watched Aimi and Hiraku, "to see how well you take care of him."

"Well, he's all the family I have left — aside from Nanami, of course," said Aimi softly. "My clan originates from the Hidden Rock Village, so I've never met any of my other clan members."

"Why don't you live there then? In the Hidden Rock Village?" said Naruto curiously.

"My mother was from a rival clan," said Aimi. "The Ookami clan didn't approve of the Fuji clan, who rivaled my father's clan. So when they found out about my parents, they exiled them — Hiraku and I weren't alive yet, so I've never met any of my family."

"That's so sad," said Sakura softly, frowning down at her bowl of ramen that she had barely touched.

"There you are," Aimi heard Takao-sensei say from behind. "I see you've found Ichiraku — with the help of these fine genin, I assume? It's nice to see you've made some friends."

"I wouldn't call them 'friends,'" Shuji muttered — he had finished his ramen rather quickly.

"Are you their sensei?" said Naruto.

Aimi turned and saw Takao-sensei nod. "That's right, and I have been for almost a year now."

"You're kidding!" said Naruto. "How many missions have you been on?"

"We've been on several B-rank missions and four A-rank missions in the last year, not to mention plenty of C-rank and D-rank missions," said Takao-sensei. "I find it's best to always keep them busy with missions ranging from easy to difficult."

"You've been on_ four _A-rank missions?" Naruto exclaimed. "I wish our sensei would take a few pointers from you!"

Aimi could see a look of envy on Naruto's face, and Sakura looked surprised. Sasuke, however, seemed impressed, but when he saw Aimi looking at him, his face grew serious again, and he acted as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Did you successfully carry out those missions?" said Sasuke, trying to sound as if he was asking out of pure boredom.

"We sure did," said Ren proudly.

"That's amazing," said Sakura to Shuji, who stared down at his empty bowl.

"Well," said Takao-sensei, "if you all are done with your meals, why don't we get going? I think we have some. . . . Pressing matters to take care of." He shot Aimi a look as if that was intended for her, but she was completely lost.

Then Shuji said, "You know, there's going to be a full moon tonight."

Aimi's eyes widened — that was what Takao-sensei meant by 'pressing matters'.

"What did the full moon have to do with anything?" said Naruto.

"Nothing," Aimi said sharply. "Shuji is just really into astrology and stuff like that — you know, nerdy things."

Ren tried his best to hide his laughter, and Shuji made no attempt to hide the death glare he shot at Aimi. Hiraku, who was completely oblivious to any of it, got out of his seat, ready to leave. Nanami leapt onto Aimi's shoulder and Takao-sensei gave Shuji a stern look, and his three students got up from their seats, Aimi leaving money on the counter.

"It was nice meeting you all," Aimi said with a smile.

"We'll see you around," Ren said, giving the three a small wave.

To no one's surprise, Shuji made no noise and no gesture.

"They seemed nice," Takao-sensei said as they walked.

"More like annoying," said Shuji with a heavy sigh.

"How did I know you would find something wrong with them?" Takao-sensei said with a laugh. He always teased Shuji for being the grump of the trio.

"So, Aimi, are you going to be gone tonight?" Hiraku said to Aimi as they walked.

Aimi sighed — she knew why he was asking. It was because of Shuji's comment about the full moon, which meant that Aimi would be stuck as a wolf for the night. However, until Hiraku turned ten, he wouldn't be able to shift into a wolf, leaving Aimi alone during the full moon for the next few nights. She would leave her house due to the fact that, when she was in her wolf form, she lost all self-control and all sense, becoming a dangerous wolf with a lust for blood — she had woken up countless times covered in blood from some animal (or so she hoped) that she had killed during the night. That's why she preferred changing when she was angry instead of during the full moon — at least then she could keep her mind.

"Yes, I'll be out tonight," Aimi said. "But I'll try to be home before you even wake up."

"Okay," Hiraku said softly, obviously not thrilled with the idea of not having Aimi around, even for a few hours.

"You can hang out with me tonight, Hiraku," Ren offered.

"You get to keep Nanami with you tonight, if you want," Aimi offered. "She can keep you company, can't you, Nanami?"

She smiled when Nanami gave an encouraging bark, and Hiraku smiled, seeming to feel better about not having Aimi home during the night. As they walked, Aimi saw many people her age — maybe she would make more than just a couple friends here.

They reached their new home in a matter of minutes, and Aimi smiled. The house was a large, single level house with a huge front yard and an even bigger back yard. Inside, there were five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and in the back yard was a big, beautiful garden filled with flowers Aimi had never seen before — it was breath taking. The house was fully furnished on the inside, and Aimi was very impressed — this house was much nicer than any of the houses in the Hidden Tree Village.

"I take it as you guys aren't hungry?" said Takao-sensei as they all gathered in the kitchen after taking a quick tour of the house. When they shook their heads, he said, "Well, I'm going to make myself something to eat — I'll make extra in case any of you get hungry later on."

Aimi glanced at the clock. It was already eight o'clock. In two hours, she would go into wolf mode and wouldn't regain her normality until the next morning when she awoke in human form. She sighed and looked outside and saw the moon was already on its steady rise to the middle of the velvet black sky. Looking at Takao-sensei, she nodded her head towards the window.

"I think I'm going to head out," Aimi said. "Maybe I can find some place in the woods to relax for the night that will suit the wolf."

Takao-sensei nodded. "We'll look for you if you aren't back by noon."

Aimi smiled. "Okay. Hopefully I won't wake up in someone's yard again — it tends to freak them out."

"Have fun," Shuji muttered while heading off for his room.

Aimi went to the living room, where Ren and Shuji were playing a card game. She placed Nanami on the ground, and the small wolf scampered over to Hiraku, causing the young boy to look up over to Aimi.

"You're leaving already?" he said softly.

"I'll be home before you know it," said Aimi reassuringly.

Hiraku stood and ran over to Aimi, grabbing her hand and leading her over to the couch. He sat down and Aimi followed suit. As she settled into the couch, Hiraku crawled onto her lap, looking up at Aimi with his large green eyes. With the lovely curiosity all kids were gifted with, Hiraku said, "Aimi — tell me the story of our clan, please?"

Aimi smiled lightly — Hiraku typically asked their mother to tell him the story, though Aimi had offered to do it countless times. The fact that he asked made her feel as if she was doing something right. So, she cleared her throat and said, "Sure thing, sweetie.

"Well, you know how it starts — long ago, long before the different villages were even established, the Ookami clan held itself to high regard. Our clan used to be amazing hunters, and we were one of the most feared clans in all the nations. One day though, our fearless clan leader, Aito, was out hunting and he slaughtered a large wolf he stumbled across in the woods. Proud of his kill, Aito took the wolf back to the clan's camp and skinned the wolf, using its fur as a trophy of his accomplishment, and the meat to help provide for his people. The next day though, Aito was approached by an elderly woman.

"The woman told Aito that the wolf he killed the day prior was in fact her companion. She said that if Aito were to return the remains of her beloved wolf, she would go on her merry way. However, Aito refused to return the remains because he was too proud of his victory. Angered, the woman revealed her identity to Aito — she was not just an elderly woman, but in fact she was a very skilled ninja who was able to lay a curse upon the entire Ookami clan. The curse she put upon the clan was a curse that would subject the members of the clan to shift into wolves during the full moon.

"When the members of the clan heard of the curse, they killed Aito in hopes to break the curse, but unfortunately the curse was not lifted, and the woman said she would only lift the curse if her wolf's remains were returned to her. However, none of the clan members knew where Aito had stashed the remains. They decided they would deal with the curse and figured that the next generation of the clan would be unaffected. However, they realized that those born into the clan after the curse was placed upon them were not affected by it until they reached the age of ten, when they would first change during the full moon.

"So, now, the Ookami clan members are subjected to changing during the full moon, and thanks to their ability to shift, they all have connections with animals, especially wolves. In fact, they understood wolves so well that, at the age of ten, as sort of a rite of passage, a clan member will be sent out into the wild to find their one true companion, and they're not allowed to return until they find their companion," Aimi finished the story, smiling lightly at Hiraku. Then she realized that he was asleep, so she carried him to his room and tucked him into his bed before going back to the living room.

"Good night," she said to Ren and Takao. "I'll be safe — I promise."

She left the house, closing the door behind her, and made her way towards the woods — it was already nine o-clock, so she a little time to find a spot for her transformation. She wanted to be far away enough from the house so she wouldn't make her way back in wolf form and possibly hurt any of her teammates.

She walked for quite a while before she finally sat down — she had lost track of time. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Twenty? She laid down and decided to wait — she would know soon enough what time it was — the pain of shifting would make it more than obvious. However, as soon as the pain subsided, Aimi wouldn't remember a single thing she did in wolf form until sun rise the next day.

The minutes slowly went by — Aimi was beginning to wonder what was wrong when she felt the heat begin to spread through her body, starting in her face and spreading to her feet. Next followed the worst pain Aimi had ever experienced — it got worse and worse with every transformation. Suddenly, the pain stopped, and Aimi's mind went dark.

_Good bye, sanity,_ Aimi though, _I'll see you in the morning._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Aimi woke up slightly dazed. She was very warm, and the ground beneath her was soft and padded, and upon feeling it with her fingers, it felt silky. Wait — silky? She sat up and looked beneath her — she was sitting on a bed with silk sheets beneath her and a wool blanket on top of her — from what she could feel, she was naked. That meant someone found her naked, carried her into their house, and put her in some bed — the thought mortified Aimi. Slowly, she perked her ears up, listening intently in case of any possible sounds. When she didn't hear anything too abnormal, she sniffed the air — several scents were mixed together; humans and dogs. Thanks to the full moon, all her senses were tripled; her hearing, eyesight, smelling, taste, touch — they were only heightened during the full moon, but it was an added bonus of her bloodline. Her speed and strength were also heightened, which did come in handy. However, Aimi wasn't worried about that, and she held the blanket up to her chest and slowly got out of the bed, gazing around the room.

"How did I get here?" Aimi whispered to herself.

Slowly making her way to the door, she placed her hand on the doorknob, turned it, and gently pulled it open. Immediately, a dog's urgent bark could be heard, followed by footsteps, and the sound of a rather tired young man's voice saying, "What is it, Akamaru? Is she finally up?"

Aimi's eyes widened and she quickly slipped back into the room, slamming the door shut. Looking around frantically, she spotted the bedside table and ran to it, pushing it up behind the door. Then the doorknob turned and someone tried to push it open, but thankfully the bedside table did exactly what Aimi had intended, so it didn't budge. She couldn't believe it — some creep took advantage of her when she was passed out naked and kidnapped her!

"Um, hello," said the boy through the door. "Mind letting me in?"

"No way," Aimi snapped. "You kidnapped me!"

"Kidnapped you?" repeated the boy. "That's not what happened — open the door, and I'll explain."

"Why should I trust you?" Aimi sneered, clutching the blanket even tighter around her. She was honestly scared — her ears were fully erect, listening for any possible sound that could be considered threatening.

However, all she heard was the boy sigh before saying, "Please listen — I can explain everything. You see, earlier this morning, my sister and I were going out to go to her office when we found you sleeping in our yard — that was around five thirty this morning. Anyway, you weren't wearing anything, so my sister and I brought you back to the house and we tucked you in — my sister found your clothes, and I think she washed them and placed them on your dresser. My mom washed you up — you were covered in dirt and dried animal blood."

Aimi shivered — waking up covered in blood wasn't an uncommon thing for her when she recovered from a full moon. She looked over at the dresser and sure enough her clothes were folded and on the corner of her dresser — her sandals had even been washed and were sitting next to her clothes. It sort of seemed like the boy was telling her the truth. However, she was curious as to what this boy looked like, so, with her ears pressed down flat on her head, she carefully pulled the table back slightly, only five inches, allowing the boy to push it open some, and giving Aimi a view of him.

He was much taller than her, and he had brown spikey hair and dark brown eyes. His skin was rather tan, and he had a semi-muscular build and a red triangle on each of his cheeks — was it maybe his clan mark? He peered in at Aimi, and she noted his wolf-like grin — he had very noticeable canines. He was wearing a black mesh shirt and dark grey pants, and looked rather disheveled — Aimi could only assume he had been sleeping.

"Good morning, sunshine," he said with a laugh.

Aimi, however, wasn't amused. While the boy didn't look dangerous, she still had no idea who he was. She glared sharply at him and said, "Who are you?"

"Wow, not much of a morning person, are you?" he muttered. When Aimi's expression didn't falter, he sighed and said, "The name is Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my partner, Akamaru."

The name Inuzuka sounded familiar to Aimi — she remembered that her dad talked about how their clans had once feuded, and while the Inuzuka clan had long since forgiven the Ookami clan, her clan still held a grudge against them. Aimi peered over the table and saw a small white dog with a brown patch on each ear. The dog barked up at Aimi, but in a friendly manner. She looked back up at Kiba and said, "My name is Aimi Ookami — I'm not from here."

"Oh, that's obvious," said Kiba, not bothering to bring up the feud the clans once had — maybe he didn't know. "My sister found a headband with all your stuff — you're from the Hidden Tree Village, which is pretty far from here. Word is the village was destroyed in some raid a few days ago."

"How'd you find out?" Aimi said, her eyes wide — she didn't think anybody would know about it.

"People talk," Kiba said with a shrug. "I guess some small neighboring village thought there was a big commotion going on at the village, and when they went to check it out, the place was a total disaster — everyone was dead, most buildings were burned down, and those that were still standing had been broken into and raided."

Aimi numbly stumbled backwards as an onslaught of memories assaulted her — she had to suppress these memories before she could say anything. Kiba noticed this, and he pushed the door open, struggling against the table. Aimi looked up at him, and, in her curiosity as to why he was coming near her, her ears perked up, and he paused.

"You have. . . . Wolf ears?" said Kiba, studying her ears rather closely. When Aimi nodded, he smiled. "That's really cool — but how do you have those — if you don't mind me asking?"

She frowned slightly and said, "It's, uh, something with my clan. . . . Anyway, thank you for taking me in," she said quickly, trying to change the subject.

Kiba looked a bit confused but said, "It was no problem."

"Yeah," Aimi said. An awkward silence fell over the two, and she slowly said, "So. . . . Um. . . . Where do we go from here?"

"Well," said Kiba, looking over to the dresser, "why don't you get dressed? And while you do that, Akamaru and I can make breakfast for the three of us — oh, and you had a few wounds, some minor, but some pretty nasty gashes. My sister's a vet though, so she was able to patch you up pretty well. She dressed the wounds, but you still have some scratches and bruises on you — for the most part though, you're golden."

"Thanks," Aimi said. Then she caught sight of the sky through the window, and sunlight was beginning to fall into the room through the open curtains. "Um, Kiba. . . . What time is it?"

Kiba shrugged. "Seven o'clock-ish. Why?"

She thought about Hiraku, and how he would be worried about her when he woke up. She knew that Nanami would be able to keep him occupied for a while though, so she just shook her head and said, "Nothing, I was just curious, I guess."

Kiba nodded and headed for the door. "Alright, well, just come out when you're dressed."

He left the room and closed the door behind him. Aimi stood, allowing the blanket fall to the ground, and she gazed at her bare reflection in the mirror that sat on the dresser — her torso was covered in scratches and bruises, and there was even a bite mark on her left hip. She had several bandages on each of her arms, and a minor cut on her right cheek. Looking at her legs, she saw she had a few wounds there as well — no doubt that whatever she killed put up quite a fight.

Sighing, Aimi began to get dressed and brushed her hair out with a brush that had been placed on the dresser, along with a few hair ties. She took one and pulled back her hair high up on her head, but it still went more than half way down her back — she hated her hair so long, but it was against the Ookami Clan's tradition for women to cut their hair. The men were allowed to, but it was frowned upon if a woman did it. So, Aimi never cut her hair in her twelve years of being alive, though sometimes she wished she could. After tying her headband around her waist, Aimi walked out of the room, not bothering to move the bedside table back to its original position.

"So this is what you look like with clothes," said Kiba with a smirk as Aimi came into the kitchen where he was cooking bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, and pancakes, all of which caused Aimi's mouth to water — she had a tendency to eat a lot of food.

"Sorry we had to meet under such circumstances," Aimi said while taking a piece of raw bacon and eating it — during the full moon she had an overwhelming desire for raw meat of any kind.

Kiba just shook his head as he watched her do this, seeming amused and said, "Don't be afraid to make yourself at home — anyway, some of the food is ready if you want to fix yourself a plate."

"Thanks," Aimi said, taking a plate as Kiba handed her one. She loaded it with several pieces of everything, loading up pretty heavily on the bacon and sausage. "This all looks really good — I didn't think you'd be able to cook."

"Well, my mom is rarely home and my sister is always busy," said Kiba with a shrug. "Akamaru and I are typically all by ourselves here — I remember one time my sister got so caught up in her work and my mom was out on a mission, so I was completely alone here with Akamaru for a week."

"Wow," Aimi said as she sat down at the table where there was already a fork and knife waiting for her. "So, you pretty much take care of yourself? What about your dad?"

Kiba shrugged. "Never met the guy. He left when I was young — I swear my mom scared him off."

"Oh come on," Aimi said doubtfully. "I doubt she had anything to do with it."

"Well, you never met my mom," Kiba reminded her as he poured two large glasses of milk and placed them at the table before going to fix his own plate. "That woman is a whole bunch of scary."

Aimi just shrugged and began eating — she had to admit, though this morning had started off terrifying, it was actually turning out pretty well. The food tasted great, her clothes were clean, her wounds had been tended to, and she managed to make a friend who didn't see too terribly bothered by her wolf ears — if only Aimi could tell him about her shifting abilities.

"So," started Kiba as he sat down at the table with two plates — one for him and one for Akamaru. "Mind telling me exactly how and why you ended up in my yard naked?"

Aimi looked up from her plate, her ears slightly perked. "Um . . . I-I don't remember."

It wasn't a total lie — she knew why she ended up in his yard, yes, but she didn't have any idea exactly how she landed herself there.

"Well, we have plenty of time," said Kiba. "Maybe you'll remember — but does it have anything to do with those ears of yours?" As he began eating his breakfast, which was mainly bacon and sausage, Akamaru jumped up on the table and began eating off the second plate Kiba had put together.

"Yeah, maybe I will," Aimi said. While Kiba appeared to be a trustworthy guy, she did just meet him about an hour ago.

The three ate in silence for a long time before they were all finished eating. Then, after Aimi put her plate away, Kiba and Akamaru stood up from the table and looked at the clock.

"Uh oh," he muttered, looking at the clock. He ran to the living room and grabbed his coat off a peg in the wall and threw it on, zipping it up and allowing Akamaru to nestle his way into it. "We have to go!"

He grabbed Aimi by the hand and pulled her out the door, running quickly. Aimi was confused and frightened, not particularly liking being forced to go places.

"Where are you taking me?" Aimi exclaimed as Kiba jumped into the trees, still dragging Aimi behind him.

"I'm late for practice!" he shouted in response. "Come on, move!"

"What — hey! Put me down!"

Kiba must have decided that Aimi was moving too slow, so he picked Aimi up and was currently carrying her on his back. Aimi was extremely uncomfortable, but when she tried to detach herself from Kiba's back, he only held on to her legs tighter, which only angered her even further.

"You know I hate this, don't you?" Aimi yelled — he was running incredibly fast.

"Yeah, and you know I don't care, right?"

"I have to get home though! My teammates and sensei will be getting worried!"

"I'll take you after practice, okay? I promise!"

"I really have to get home though!"

Kiba didn't seem to hear her — or perhaps he was just ignoring her. Aimi let out an irritated sigh and just sort of slumped — it looked like she was going to be stuck like this until Kiba got to wherever he had to be. However, she didn't have to wait more than three minutes. He jumped down from the tree and when he landed on the ground, he dropped Aimi — yes, dropped her.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!" Kiba said apologetically when he realized he dropped Aimi right on her butt. She glared up at him, her ears pressed flat against her head, her cheeks turning red with anger.

"Idiot," Aimi muttered as she got up to her feet, brushing the grass off her bottom, trying her best to be gentle towards it.

"I already said I was sorry!" Kiba said, and Aimi noted that he sounded rushed.

"Nice entrance," someone said.

Aimi looked away from Kiba and towards the voice — it was a boy with brown spikey hair wearing a grey coat that covered his face. She wasn't really sure if he was actually looking at the pair because he wore black circular glasses over his eyes. Next to him stood a young girl with short navy blue hair and pale eyes, and she seemed to be cowering away from Aimi, concealing part of herself behind the boy in the coat. Then, behind them was an older woman with long black hair and red eyes. Aimi froze when she saw these people, quickly stepping behind Kiba.

"Nice of you to finally show up, Kiba," said the woman.

"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei," Kiba said with a short bow, "but I really do have a reason for being late!"

"What is it this time?" said the boy with a sigh.

"Shut it, Shino!" Kiba yelled. "I really do have a reason!"

"Let's hear it," Kurenai sighed.

Kiba launched into the entire story about waking up and finding Aimi in his yard — thankfully, he spared the details about her being naked. He told them about waiting for her wake up, and then making her breakfast. By the end of it, his team was trying to peer around Kiba to get a good look at Aimi, who continued to hide behind him.

"Well, if what you say is true, then I can't really blame you," Kurenai said with a sigh. "But, unless Aimi confirms your story, then I can't really believe you either."

Kiba turned around and gave Aimi a pleading look — she really didn't want to speak up to all those people, but she didn't want Kiba to get in trouble, especially after all he had done for her. So, with a heavy sigh, Aimi stepped out from behind Kiba and faced his team.

"Yes, Kiba helped me, and I'm the reason he was late," Aimi said. "My name is Aimi Ookami, and I'm originally from the Hidden Tree Village. Due to certain circumstances, my teammates and I have moved here, and last night, after some unknown events, I landed in Kiba's yard. I woke up this morning covered in cuts and bruises that had been tended to, and I was safe and well rested. Kiba took care of me, and if it weren't for me ending up in his yard, Kiba would have been on time, I can assure you of that."

His sensei looked at Aimi with an analyzing look. She looked her up and down, and then her eyes caught the headband around her waist. "So, you really are from the Hidden Tree Village — I've spotted your headband, and I just wanted to say, I'm sorry about what happened to your village. I'm sure you and your family must be devastated."

Aimi just silently nodded. "Um —"

"Y-your v-v-village was d-destroyed?" said the small girl from behind Shino, speaking for the first time.

"Yes," Aimi said softly. "A few days ago our village was raided. My teammates and I are the only survivors — as well as my little brother and sensei."

"What about your parents?" said Kurenai.

"They —"

"You didn't try to save your own parents?" said Shino.

"Well, I tried, but —"

"You didn't tell me that," said Kiba. "How come you didn't tell me?"

"It's just not something —"

"You two just met, Kiba," Shino said. "Why would she open up to a complete stranger?"

"Are you saying I'm not trustworthy?" growled Kiba.

"All I'm saying is that you just met the girl — you can't really blame her if she doesn't open up to you about everything," said Shino without any trace of emotion in his voice, which only angered Kiba even further.

"Oh, really? Well guess — hey, where are you going?"

Aimi had run off into the forest, breathing heavily and extremely overwhelmed. Kiba and his teammates were overloading her with all the questions they asked, and then he and Shino started fighting, which only frightened Aimi even more. She followed the trail Kiba left behind when he had left the house, and within a matter of minutes, she arrived back at his house. Aimi turned about frantically, not really sure where she could go — she had no idea how to get to the village from Kiba's house since she wandered there last night. Not really sure what else to do, she headed off into the woods opposite from her, hoping to find the village. However, Kiba found her first. When he caught up to her, he grabbed Aimi by the wrist and turned her around — she couldn't believe it! He had actually been moving faster than her, even with her speed heighten — Aimi did remind herself that she wasn't going nearly as fast as she was capable of. Still, Kiba made her stop, his grip on her wrist rather tight that way Aimi wouldn't pull away.

"Aimi," Kiba panted, Akamaru by his side. "Why'd you run off like that?"

"Because, Kiba!" Aimi yelled. "You and your team just officially freaked me the heck out! I mean, seriously, you thought that taking me with you was a good idea?"

"Well, I'm sorry," Kiba said softly. "I didn't think it would turn out like that — I didn't realize there would be so many questions — and Shino was way out of line, and I'm really sorry about it."  
Aimi sighed — she may not have known Kiba for very long, but form what she could tell, he wouldn't have intentionally put her in such a stressful situation. "Okay," she said, "it's not too big of deal — you want to go back to your team? I'll apologize for acting like such an idiot."

"Well, two things," said Kiba. "First, you don't need to apologize, they do — they asked way too many questions. And second, Kurenai-sensei just gave us the day off — she said that obviously I needed to come find you and calm you back down before I take you home, and since she didn't want to practice without her entire team there, she just dismissed us for the day. She didn't seem too happy about it, but I was really worried about you and didn't complain."

She couldn't believe it — someone was actually worried about her? For her entire life, no one outside her family or team had actually been worried about her. They labeled her as a freak, an outcaste — a monster. It was because of them that she did her best to keep her bloodline a secret. She was ashamed of it — unlike her parents and brother, Aimi hid her ears because she was afraid of being judged — and considering that she was in a new village where no one had any clue what she was, she wanted to keep any harsh judgments to a bare minimum.

"Oh. . . . Thank you, I guess," was all she said — she didn't really know what she was supposed to say in a situation like this.

"So, should we go back to your house?" said Kiba. "It's around ten thirty."

"Wow, already?" said Aimi, shocked — she didn't realize they had been out and about that long.

"Well, we took a while to eat breakfast," Kiba said with a shrug. Akamaru barked happily, and Aimi smiled softly down at the small dog. She knelt down and extended her hand to him, allowing Akamaru to sniff it. However, he didn't bother sniffing her hand and instead just licked it, his tail wagging happily. Kiba smiled and said, "Or we could spend some more time together — I mean, Akamaru and I could show you around town, show you the best places to get food and stuff — do you like steak jerky? Because there's this vendor that I'm really good friends with and his jerky is the best! Since you're friends with me, he'll give you a discount."

Aimi laughed softly, feeling much better — Kiba seemed to know how to ease her nerves. She thought about Hiraku and frowned slightly — she really should be getting home. . . . However, Kiba and Akamaru just seemed so eager to show her around, she didn't want to let them down. Besides, she'd be going straight home after they showed her around a bit.

So, after much internal arguing, Aimi finally nodded. "Alright, that sounds fun."

Kiba grinned. "Sweet! Okay, let's go then! Oh, and you can carry Akamaru, if you want."

Considering how much Kiba seemed to care for Akamaru, Aimi figured it was quite a privilege to be allowed to hold him. So, Aimi took Akamaru in her arms, and he snuggled in really close, which made Kiba grin.

"He likes you," Kiba said, seeming very amused.

"I have a way with animals," Aimi said with a shrug as they walked through the forest in a different direction. "Do you really know where you're going?"

"I've lived here for my entire life, Aimi," Kiba reminded her. "I'm pretty sure I know my way around here."

So, the two just continued to walk through the forest, and for about twenty minutes, there was nothing but trees. Aimi was beginning to wonder if Kiba actually did know where he was going when they came out into the village, close to all of the big shops. Aimi was impressed by how big the village actually was — Takao-sensei didn't really bother showing them around the day before.

Kiba showed Aimi around the town, leading her down the unpaved paths through the village; he showed her the dessert shop, where kids were gathered outside the storefront, watching the freshly baked goods with hungry eyes; the local weapon shop was filled with older men and women, all looking for the newest weapons; there was a book shop, and through the window, Aimi could see rows upon rows of books — she made a mental note to tell Ren about that place; there was Ichiraku, and Aimi smiled lightly as she saw Naruto run in there, looking ready to order; he showed her the clothing store, and Aimi had to admit, it did perk her interest slightly; there was even a ninken shop, and Aimi was awestruck with the amount of small puppies sitting in the window, looking hopefully out at the crowded street, waiting to go home with someone.

They stopped at the vendor Kiba had been telling Aimi about and pulled out him wallet. The vendor was an older gentleman with thinning brown hair who was a few pounds overweight, and when he saw Kiba wander up to him stand with Aimi and Akamaru in tow, he smiled brightly.

"Ah, hey there, Kiba!" said the man. "You want the usual?"

"Make it four this time," Kiba said while handing the man the money.

Instead of taking his money though, the man just shook his head. "There's no need for that — you're taking a girl out on a date, so I'll let you save your money."

Kiba and Aimi's cheeks both tinted a light shade of pink, and Kiba stammered, "N-no! I-I'm just showing her round the village! She's new here and she got lost, so I offered to give her a quick tour and take her home."

"Uh huh," said the man, winking at Kiba, "whatever you say. Here ya' go!"

The man handed Kiba a large, four pound bag of what looked like delicious jerky. Once again, Kiba tried to hand him the money, but the man just shook his head and turned his attention on to his next customer. Aimi gave Kiba a shrug and the two walked off, Akamaru still snuggled happily into Aimi's arms. Kiba handed a piece of the jerky to Aimi, and she took a bite, and immediately, she smiled largely.

"This is amazing," she said while putting the rest in her mouth. Then she noticed Akamaru seemed to want some and he looked to Kiba. "Is Akamaru allowed to have any — I know some people are really picky about what their ninken consume?"

Kiba nodded and handed her a piece to give to Akamaru. "Go right ahead — man, Akamaru is going to love you. You really know a lot about ninken, huh?"

She gave the jerky to Akamaru, and he happily accepted it. "Sure do — I have my own ninken."

"No way!" Kiba exclaimed. "I can't believe it — that's so cool! I haven't met too many people outside of my own clan that have a ninken!"

"Oh, well, everyone in my clan has a ninken," Aimi said. "It's sort of mandatory — when a member of our clan turns ten, they have to go out into the wilderness by themselves and find their companion."

"The wilderness?" said Kiba. "You mean, like, the forest?"

"That's exactly what I mean," said Aimi. "Our ninken are wolves — they make amazing companions."

"Wow," Kiba said softly as the two arrived at an open field — Aimi didn't realize how far they had walked. "And you guys have to go out into the woods completely alone at the age of ten and you're expected to survive?"

"Well, at the age of ten, we have this . . . connection with all animals, especially wolves," Aimi said with a shrug, taking another piece of jerky from the bag. "We're not allowed to return to the clan until we've found out companion."

"No pressure," Kiba muttered sarcastically.

He then looked up at the sky and grinned. Aimi also looked up, staring blankly at the clear blue sky. The sun was shining, warming Aimi's skin, and she looked over back at Kiba, who was now watching her with a small, wolfish grin on his face. She gave him a quizzical look.

"What are you — ouch!"

Aimi tripped over something large and solid, which brought her down to the ground. She groaned and rolled over, making sure Akamaru was okay, and the small pup was happily wagging his tail. Kiba was immediately by her side, helping Aimi to her feet.

"Are you two okay?" he said quickly.

Aimi nodded. "Yeah, we're both fine — what did I trip on?"

"That lazy bum," Kiba muttered, nudging a large lump on the ground with his foot.

To her surprise, the lump groaned and sat up — it was a young boy around their age. "Hey, what's the big idea?"

"Aimi," Kiba sighed irritably, "meet Shikamaru Nara — the laziest genin I ever met in the Academy."

Shikamaru had tan skin and his brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail on top of his head. He looked sleepily at Aimi and Kiba, seeming highly annoyed. "Why'd you wake me up?"

"Because you tripped her," Kiba growled. "I figured you should at least say sorry considering you almost hurt Akamaru — and Aimi, of course."

The boy looked at Aimi with curious eyes. "You're not from here," he said bluntly. "Hidden Tree Village, huh? Word has it that your village was destroyed — why'd you want to come here?"

"I didn't really have a choice," Aimi said, the bitterness back in her voice. "Besides, it's none of your business why I'm here, and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't bring it up, considering it doesn't concern you about whether my village was destroyed or not."

"Whatever," he muttered, laying back down. "It doesn't concern me — I just want to go back to sleep."

"Aren't you going to say sorry?" demanded Kiba.

Obviously annoyed, Shikamaru opened one eye, peering up at the three of them. With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes again and said, "Sorry — sorry that you were too blind too see me sleeping here under a tree."

"Shikamaru —"

"Do you hear that?" Aimi said suddenly, causing Kiba and Shikamaru to both look at her.

"Hear what?" said Shikamaru.

Kiba listened intently before saying. "I don't hear anything, Aimi."

"There's someone coming towards us — from the north side of the field — I can smell blood," Aimi said, her voice starting to sound panic stricken — the scent was all too familiar.

It was Nanami running towards them. And that wasn't her blood.

"I can smell it too," Kiba said suddenly, and Akamaru let out a low growl as he crouched down in an offensive stance.

"Don't attack," Aimi said quickly. "That's my companion, Nanami! You can't attack!"

"Why is she covered in blood?" Kiba said.

"I have no idea," Aimi said — as Nanami got closer, the smell got stronger, and Aimi could pick out the scents — she was covered in her teammates' blood. "It's not her blood — that's what worries me."

"Then whose blood is it?" Shikamaru said, chiming into the conversation for the first time.

"I-I don't know," she lied.

That's when Nanami came into view. From a distance, the small wolf looked the same, black in color as usual. However, as she ran closer, Aimi could see that her fur was wet and matted — blood covered every part of her body, and Kiba covered his nose and mouth.

"I'm sorry, but she reeks," he told Aimi.

She didn't care though — Aimi ran to Nanami, meeting the small wolf in seconds. The look on Nanami's face told it all — something was terribly wrong. She was letting out panic-stricken barks and yelps, and Aimi just nodded.

"The others — they're in danger?" Aimi said softly.

Nanami nodded urgently. Aimi took a deep breath, turning towards Kiba, Akamaru, and Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, come with me — Kiba, you and Akamaru go get help."

"No, I'll come," Kiba said — he sounded very serious, a complete attitude change. "I'll send Akamaru for my mother — she'll come in no time. Akamaru, buddy, go find Mom — she's probably at the Hokage's office. Follow our scents to wherever Nanami leads us, got it?"

Akamaru nodded and ran off. Shikamaru looked rather alert, and Aimi looked at him with disparity. "Please come — I know I just met you, but I have no idea what happened — I have a bad feeling that my teammates and sensei are in danger."

Shikamaru stood. "I can't really say no, so let's go."

Aimi smiled lightly — it looked like she had made another friend in this large village. She looked to Nanami, who was still trembling in fear. "Can you lead us back to the house? You need to move as quickly as possible."

Nanami nodded and darted off, and Aimi, Shikamaru, and Kiba took off after her. Aimi found it easy to keep pace with Nanami, but looking back over her shoulder, she saw that Kiba and Shikamaru were having some difficulty keeping up with the two. She turned towards the front, focusing her attention on where Nanami led them; her mind was racing — were her teammates okay? What about Takao-sensei? She couldn't smell Hiraku's blood, so she figured it was safe to assume that her brother was safe, though he was probably scared.

"Are you okay?"

It was Shikamaru asking — Aimi hadn't noticed that he had caught up with her. She just slowly nodded. "I'm just. . . . It's just. . . . We only arrived here yesterday. . . I don't understand who would attack us, much less why they would want to."

Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

Finally, Nanami came to a halt and Aimi took a deep breath — she was still shaking as she looked towards the house, where the smell of blood was emitting from the building. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Kiba looking at her with an encouraging gaze. She faced back towards her house and saw the front door had been ripped off the hinges and was laying in the yard. With a deep breath, Aimi began to approach the house, Nanami close to her side. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she knew that, from the smell of blood coming from the house, it probably wasn't going to be pretty. Every part of her body wanted to turn and run, but she knew she couldn't do that. She had to face whatever was in there.

"I . . . I can't go in there," Aimi said suddenly when she was only five feet from the door. "I can't go in there!"

"Aimi," Kiba said quickly. "Aimi, listen to me — I know we don't know each other very well, but I do know that you care for a lot of people. I can smell what you smell, so I know it won't be a pretty sight in there, but you have to trust me — there may be a chance that your team is still alive, okay? We have to help them to the best of our ability, okay?"

"He's right Aimi," said Shikamaru. "Look, this entire situation is a drag — I was perfectly content sleeping in the meadow, but you two woke me up, so now I'm involved in this. I think your friends may still be alive, but we'll never know unless we go in there. The longer we stand out here debating, the shorter their lives may be growing, got it?"

Aimi shook her head clear of the negative thoughts — they were right. What if there was a chance that they were still alive? She turned towards the door frame and stepped inside. The foyer was clean, but there were small, bloody paw prints on the ground that Aimi and the others followed. The trail led them through the living room, the kitchen, and into the den. Aimi's breath caught in her throat as she stepped into the mess.

Blood splattered the walls, and three bloody masses lay on the floor in a pool of their own blood. The room was littered with broken lamp shards and picture frames, showing there had been a struggle. Aimi noticed two round items were lying on the ground near one of the masses, and saw a similar object by the largest lump on the ground. Kiba covered his nose, the smell overpowering for him, and Shikamaru took a step backwards, muttered a few curses. Aimi was motionless for a few moments, tears streaming silently down her face before her survival mode kicked in. She swiftly moved over to the largest mass on the floor and turned over the bloody thing — it was Takao-sensei. His breathing was faint, but strong enough that Aimi knew she could save him if she moved quickly enough. As she looked over his wounds, she couldn't believe what had been done to him — he had several lacerations on his chest and arms, with a particularly deep one across his chest. Looking at his face, she realized what that round object was — it was Takao-sensei's left eye. She gulped down a scream and looked at Kiba and Shikamaru, who were standing back, paralyzed by some emotion — probably fear.

"Don't just stand there — each of you get one of the boys and watch me," she snapped.

Kiba and Shikamaru scrambled over to the boys. When Kiba turned over the boy, Aimi couldn't believe it — it was Shuji, bloody and beaten, with two gaping holes where his eyes should have been. His arms looked as if the skin had been shaven off of them while he was trying to protect his face. When Shikamaru turned Ren over, Aimi was relieved that he at least had both of his eyes. However, he had a rather bad gash on his face, and his body was covered with other lacerations that would no doubt leave scars. The entire right side of his face had been shaved clean of all its skin.

"Who the hell could have done this?" said Kiba.

"That's not what's important — right now, we have to save them! Now, watch my hands," Aimi instructed, her voice fierce and demanding — there was no time for questions. "I'm going to show you how to perform a simple healing jutsu — it's nothing fancy, but it will apply a simple first aid, which may help stop the bleeding and patch those wounds up."

"But I've never done anything like that," said Shikamaru.

"I don't care!" Aimi snapped. "Now watch — just make these hand signs and focus all your chakra to your hands!"

Aimi made three hand signs: horse, ox, and tiger. Her hands began glowing green, and the two mocked her movements, receiving the same results.

"Place your hands over a wound and keep focusing your chakra to your hands. Work on the larger wounds first, and then you can move on to the minor injuries," said Aimi. "As I said, this jutsu applies a basic first-aid — basic, but it can save your life."

Aimi began to work on Takao-sensei. She focused on the large gash on his chest, and it slowly stopped bleeding, and Aimi watched as the wound began closing. His other wounds began to heal, and the bleeding was slowing. He had a faint pulse, but it grew slightly stronger as Aimi worked. There was a small beacon of hope that he would pull through — that all of them would pull through. As she worked, she glanced over at Kiba and Shikamaru — considering the two of them were using the healing jutsu for the first time, they were doing rather well. Ren now had skin on the right side of his face, though it was pink and tender, and Shuji's arms were almost normal looking. His face though . . . Aimi couldn't stand looking at the gaping sockets in his head, so she turned back to Takao-sensei, forcing herself not to look at his missing eye. It was too much for her to stomach.

Just as they were beginning to stabilize the three men, Akamaru came running in, barking up a storm. He was closely followed by a large mass of people — there were twenty men in masks, ten medical ninja, and many other jonin. Aimi saw a woman walked in who was no doubt Kiba's mother, and she was accompanied by a large wolf-like canine, who must have been her companion. After a few moments, more masked men walked in, escorting a man who Aimi recognized immediately — it was the Hokage.

"Mom," said Kiba, "you guys gotta help these people!"

His mother nodded. "I know — when Akamaru showed up, he explained everything, and the Hokage sent out for the ANBU Black Ops and medical ninja — he gathered as many jonin as he could, as long as they were available. It was smart thinking to send Akamaru for us — I'm glad you actually read those notes I leave you."

"Yes, very smart," said the Hokage. "Now, you three can step back — the medical ninja will take it from here. As for you ANBU, I want you to search the house — if the people who did this left any trace of their visit, we'll find it."

"I can try to follow their scent," said Kiba's mother. When the Hokage nodded, she looked to her companion, and the two sniffed the air, following the scent out of the house and into the yard.

"I'll take it from here," said a young woman dressed in the outfit of a medical ninja. Aimi looked down at Takao-sensei, who was still unconscious, and let her hands fall to her side, the glow fading.

Shikamaru and Kiba followed her suit, and soon Aimi's teammates and sensei were being carefully put on to stretchers and carried out of the house. As the lead examiner was about to leave the house, the Hokage stopped him.

"How are their chances?" he muttered, obviously trying to keep Aimi from hearing, but she could hear him clear as day.

"Well, they're vitals aren't the best, and they're pretty banged up, but thanks to those three kids, they'll pull through. It won't be easy though," said the ninja, not bothering to keep his voice down. He looked over at Aimi. "Your teammates will pull through, and so will your sensei. Good job on the jutsu — not many people would try applying a basic first-aid, but it's a good thing you did. That simple jutsu saved their lives."

Aimi nodded and he left, leaving the Hokage alone with the three genin. He sighed heavily — obviously this was not what he had been expecting.

"Well, I'm glad you all were so quick to act," said the Hokage. "But the question is why were your actions needed?"

"I don't really know, Hokage," said Aimi. "Due to certain circumstances, I was unable to be home last night — Kiba found me this morning. He was showing me around the village, and we met Shikamaru. Shortly after that, Nanami found me — she was covered in blood. We came straight here after Kiba told Akamaru to get his mom. When we got here, we found Shuji, Ren, and Takao-sensei — oh my gosh."

"What is it, Aimi?" said Kiba, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Aimi's face paled, more so than usual, giving her a ghastly appearance. She clung to Kiba as the gut wrenching realization set in — they only found Shuji, Ren, and Takao-sensei. There was no Hiraku. Then, without warning, she pushed off of Kiba and began running frantically throughout the house.

"No, no, no," Aimi was muttering, tearing through the hall way, ducking into every room, searching in every closet and under every bed. "I can't believe it. . . ."

Kiba and Shikamaru were following her, obviously trying to figure out what was causing her to freak out in such a way. Within minutes, Aimi had searched the entire house, and there was no sign of Hiraku. He was gone — whoever attacked the others must have taken Hiraku when they were finished.

Trembling, Aimi leaned against the wall at the end of the hallway and slowly sunk to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees, and she did something she hated doing — she cried. It wasn't just crying though, it was more like sobbing. Her body shook as the tears flowed freely down her cheeks and on to her clothing. She let out desperate, sorrowful cries that echoed through the house. Kiba and Shikamaru looked at each other, unsure of what to do, or why Aimi broke down all of a sudden.

"Aimi," said Shikamaru. "What's wrong?"

"They . . . t-took him," Aimi sobbed. "They t-t-took my l-little brother! He was the only family I had left, and now he — he's gone!"

Kiba's eyes widened and he kneeled beside her, offering no words, but instead a soothing hand on her knee to comfort her. Shikamaru looked as if he was trying to find something to say, but when we thought of nothing, he looked down the hall, where the Hokage was, steadily approaching the trio. Nanami followed closely behind him, looking at Aimi with worry.

"What's wrong?" said the Hokage, looking at Aimi's tear stained face.

Aimi couldn't bear to say it again, so Kiba took the liberty of explaining. "They took Aimi's little brother — he was the only family she had left after they raided her village. She can't find him anywhere in the house."

"Lord Hokage," said an ANBU Black Ops ninja, appearing with a neatly folded piece of paper. "We found this in Aimi's room — you better look at it."

The Hokage took the note from the man, read it over, and then held it out to Aimi, who stared at the note apprehensively.

"Do you know who would've left you this note?" said the Hokage.

Aimi held his gaze for a moment before taking the note and reading it.

_ Dear Aimi,_

_ By now, you've surly realized that your beloved Hiraku is gone. Originally,_

_ the plan was to capture you, but upon realizing you weren't home, my_

_ partner and I decided your brother was the next best thing. We'll see what_

_ kind of powers he possesses — and sorry about your friends, but they got_

_ in the way._

_ I hope you weren't too surprised — I did tell you we'd cross paths again._

There was no signature, but in all reality, there was no need for one. Aimi knew exactly who it was from — the man who she fought when her village was being raided. There was no doubt in her mind that he was the one who left the note — Itachi, and his friend Kisame. It did explain the severity of the wounds — why Ren and Shuji had their skin shaved off their bodies.

"I know who left this note — I know who attacked my team and took Hiraku," Aimi said, wiping away her tears as she handed the note back to him.

The Hokage seemed surprised. "You do?"

Aimi nodded. "I do, and you do too."

"Well, who is it?" said Shikamaru.

"Itachi," Aimi said. "I don't know his last name, but his first name is Itachi — at least, that's what his partner Kisame called him. They raided my village — they're missing ninja, right? Itachi wore the same headbands as all the ninja here, but his had a line engraved through the Leaf Village symbol."

The Hokage's face grew grave. "Well, yes. . . . I do know him. Are you sure it was him?"

"With all due respect, Hokage, the two men murdered my parents, one killed an innocent mother and child, and the other tried to kill me. Right before they left, Itachi said we'd cross paths again — there is no way I'd ever forget them," said Aimi.

"Itachi?" said Kiba. "Who's Itachi? Is he really from our village, Hokage?"

"Don't worry about it," said the Hokage. He looked at Aimi. "Well, if you're sure that it was him, then I now understand why your actions were needed — he is a very powerful man. However, this also alerts me because you were his intentional target, and I cannot allow you to stay alone. You will have to stay with someone else for the time being — whoever you stay with will have protection. I will have two squads of ANBU Black Ops patrolling their house at a time at all times, in case they decide to try to come back for their original hostage. Now, do you have any one you can stay with?"

"She can stay with me."

Aimi's head jerked up — it wasn't Kiba who said that, but Shikamaru, which surprised her.

"Well, Mr. Nara, thank you — I will send a jonin to your house later tonight to explain to your parents the protection details and everything that will be going on," said the Hokage.

Aimi looked at Shikamaru and then to Kiba, and she noticed that he was looking at Shikamaru with what seemed to be jealousy. Shikamaru didn't notice though, and instead extended his hand to Aimi, who looked at it with a foreign gaze.

"Come on then, let's go back to my house — I think the two of us need a good shower," Shikamaru said, trying to make a small joke. Nanami barked, which drew his attention to her. "Er, make that the three of us."

Aimi picked up Nanami, whose fur was still slightly damp, and took Shikamaru's hand gently. He pulled her up to her feet and looked to the Hokage. "I'll let my parents know that we'll have somebody stopping by tonight. I promise that Aimi and Nanami will be perfectly safe at my house."

"They'd be safer at mine," muttered Kiba.

"What was that?" said Hokage.

Kiba quickly shook his head. "Nothing, sorry — I was just talking to myself."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "May we go?"

"I'll have an ANBU escort you back home," said the Hokage. "I want the squad leader — now!"

An ANBU appeared in front of them, and he was wearing the same uniform as the other ANBU, but he wore a white cloak over his uniform. He looked at Aimi and Shikamaru, then to the Hokage.

"You requested me, Hokage?" said the ANBU.

He nodded. "Yes, I did — I want you to escort these two and the wolf back to Mr. Nara's house. You will gather your squad from here and head out. Once you're there, you and your squad will patrol the house — I want you with Miss Ookami twenty-four seven, understand?"

The ANBU saluted the Hokage and then he straightened up. "Squad — assemble!"

Six more masked men appeared and stood stiff and alert — they were very professional looking.

"We're going to protect those two genin right there, understand?" said the squad leader.

There was a unanimous, "Yes, sir!"

The squad leader nodded. "Very well — Miss Ookami, you and I shall go to your room and gather your belongings."

Aimi slowly nodded and she walked to her room, the squad leader following closely behind her. When she stepped into her room, she turned to him. "Do you mind if I gather my things by myself?"

"That is fine, but I'll be right outside the door — if you need anything, all you'll need to do is yell," he said.

Aimi nodded and placed Nanami on the ground. Her room seemed untouched. Perfectly the same as she had left it the night before. She went to the closet and grabbed the bag she had carried from the Hidden Tree Village and her katana, which had been placed neatly on the shelf in her closet. Picking up both things, she walked over to her dresser where there was a picture of her entire family, companions and all, lying there. Before she picked it up though, Aimi noticed that it had been moved — it was resting against the wall when she left. She picked it up and sniffed it — it smelled like Itachi. Slowly, she gazed around her room — when he came in here to leave that note, he must have picked up her picture. She cringed and shoved the picture in the bag — the thought of him touching her things sickened her.

She took one last look around her room — there was nothing else there. As she was about to turn and turn off the light, something caught her eye — there was something resting on the pillow of her bed. She went over to it and found a note. Her breath caught in her throat — was it a note from Itachi? Underneath it though laid two headbands with the Leaf Village symbol, and Aimi had a gut feeling that it wasn't from Itachi. She picked up the headbands, wondering why there were two. Knowing that the answer would be enclosed in the letter, Aimi unfolded the letter and she immediately recognized the handwriting — it was most definitely not a letter from Itachi. It was from Takao-sensei.

_ Dear Aimi,_

_ Here is your new headband. It's for the Hidden Leaf Village — you are_

_ now an official ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. I hope you're feeling_

_ better; last night must have been hell, I'm sure. I hope tonight is a little_

_ bit easier for you. Just know that you're amazing young girl, and I'm_

_ very proud of you, just like your parents would be. You take great care_

_ of Hiraku and Nanami, so wear this headband with pride. I also got an _

_ extra one for Nanami._

_ Takao Oono_

Aimi choked back the tears — Takao-sensei must have put this on her bed earlier this morning. She looked down at the two headbands in her hand and tucked them and the letter into her bag, zipping it shut. Nanami was looking at Aimi with sorrowful eyes, and Aimi just shook her head, trying to play it off like she was okay. She wiped her eyes, making sure there weren't any tears, and put the bag over her shoulders after securing her katana on her back, and she looked back at Nanami, nodding towards the door. The two walked out of her room and looked at Shikamaru and the Hokage.

"Alright, I'm ready," she said.

"That was quick," Shikamaru said, walking over to them.

Aimi shrugged. "I don't have any belongings, really. A few weapons, my katana, a picture, and Takao-sensei put two headbands on my pillow — one for me, and one for Nanami."

"You don't have any other clothes?" said Kiba.

She shook her head. "Nope — they were lost when my house was burned down during the raid on my village. The only thing I was able to save was — was Hiraku."

The Hokage looked rather impressed. "You went into a burning building to save your brother?"

Aimi nodded quickly. "Of course I did — I love my brother. He's my everything, which is why I really need to find him — if he isn't found, Hokage, I can't imagine what will happen to him — he doesn't have the same abilities that I have! I'm different than most people in my clan, and he's too young for the full moon."

"So what you're saying is . . . ?"

The Hokage wasn't catching on.

Aimi sighed. "Did Takao-sensei inform you of my abilities?"

He nodded. "Indeed he did — a rather fascinating ability, I must say."

"Yeah, well, that's why they came here for me — they wanted me for my ability. Hiraku is only five, so he doesn't have the full moon ability."

"What are you talking about?" said Kiba.

"Don't worry about it," said Aimi.

The Hokage nodded. "Then I'll make sure to send out a search team as soon as I can assemble one. In the meantime, you need to go back to the Nara's and stay safe."

Shikamaru nodded and nudged Aimi with his elbow and tilted his head towards the stairs. "You ready?"

"Almost," said Aimi. She walked to Kiba and hugged him, which took him by surprise. "Thank you — I needed to meet someone like you. It was nice to be able to walk around the village with a friend."

Kiba hugged her back. "You're welcome — I'll stop by tomorrow on the way to practice to check on you, and on the way home."

She laughed softly and pulled away. "I'm sure I'll be fine — it'll take time though."

"Come, Miss Ookami," said the squad leader. "I don't want it to get dark."

"Right," Aimi said with a nod. "Bye, Kiba and Akamaru — see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Aimi," Kiba said with a heavy sigh.

Nanami jumped onto Aimi's shoulder, and she turned and walked to Shikamaru. When she was by her side, the six ANBU surrounded them, and Aimi found herself being pushed against Shikamaru, rather cramped, and they were herded down the hall and out of the house. As they made their way to Shikamaru's house, Aimi looked at Shikamaru with a weak grin.

"Well you gotta love how close we are already," Aimi said, trying to make a joke.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "This is a bit ridiculous."

She looked away, feeling bad. "I'm sorry you're in this situation, but still, thank you for letting me stay with you and your family."

"I couldn't let you stay with Kiba — that guy's mom is scary," said Shikamaru, seeming completely serious. "Besides, I'm sure my parents won't mind — my mom is always saying she wants another girl in the house."

Aimi was starting to feel a little bit better. As they walked, she figured out people were trying to find out what the ANBU squad was concealing — she could hear the murmurs of people as they passed. Soon, though, they reached Shikamaru's house and the two genin were rushed into the house. The squad leader slipped inside with them, and the six other men went off to their posts. Aimi looked around and found that Shikamaru's house was very cozy looking — everything was nice a neat, but the furniture was large and very plush. She couldn't believe how welcoming it seemed.

"Welcome to my home," said Shikamaru said with a shrug as Aimi stepped forward, simply amazed.

"You're house is so nice — much nicer than my home back at my old village," said Aimi.

"Well, for the time being, it's your house too, so enjoy it," Shikamaru told her.

Aimi smiled and wanted to sit on the couch but not in her current state — she was covered in dirt and dry blood, along with damp blood. She looked at Shikamaru sheepishly and said, "Where's your bathroom? I think Nanami and I need to clean up."

"Oh, right," said Shikamaru. "Follow me."

He showed down hall to the bathroom. Aimi stepped inside and flickered on the light, revealing a brown and orange color scheme bathroom, giving it a very warm and welcoming feel. Shikamaru seemed amused by how happy Aimi seemed.

"Glad you like it — want me to take your things?"

Aimi nodded and handed him her bag and katana. As he turned to leave, he paused and said, "Just leave your dirty clothes outside the door when you change out of them — I'll go ahead and put them in the washing machine. I think I still have some of the stuff I wore when I was younger — you can borrow that. You'll fit them better than I do, but they'll probably be big on you since you're so tiny."

He left without any further conversation and as Aimi closed the door behind him, she saw the squad leader position himself outside the door. She shook her head and closed the door completely before looked at Nanami. "Alright, we'll clean you up first."

Nanami frowned slightly — she hated getting bathed. Still, she didn't want to complain too much, so she didn't put up much of a fight when Aimi picked her up and put her on the countertop by the sink. She ran the water until it got warm and then stopped up the drain. When it was full, she turned off the water and put Nanami in, beginning to scrub off the blood. She lathered her up with some of the soap that had been sitting on the countertop. As she washed Nanami, Aimi had to drain and refill the sink several times because the water would turn a scarlet color so easily. After ten minutes though, Nanami was back to being black and grey, no longer covered in blood. Aimi wrapped her up in a large, fluffy white towel and left her sitting on the countertop as she undressed herself. She placed her clothes outside the door, making the squad leader cover his eyes, and she closed the door quickly and stepped into the shower.

Aimi turned on the water, standing under the cold stream of water as it warmed. She looked down at her feet and watched as the water began to run red as the blood on her hands, arms, and legs was washed off. Thoughts began running through her head — was Hiraku scared? Did he miss Aimi? Was he happy? Was he hurt? Would they kill him once they realized he didn't have the same abilities as she did? The thoughts made Aimi sick to her stomach, and she slowly sat down in the shower, allowing the water to just wash over her.

She didn't know how much time passed, but Aimi stayed like that for a while. She was lost in thought until the hot water ran out and she was practically frozen by the ice cold temperature. She quickly washed her hair and rinsed it out, wanting to get out of the shower as quickly as possible. Grabbing the other large white towel, she wrapped herself up and looked over to Nanami, who was still snuggled deep in her towel. She laughed softly and walked over to the door, poking her head out into the hallway. The squad leader was still standing there, and next to him was a small bunch of clean clothes. Aimi noted that there was a bra and underwear sitting on top of the clothes. Embarrassed, she quickly snatched up the clothes and took them into the bathroom.

"Whose are these?" she said while picking up the bra and underwear — they were the right size and everything, but Aimi had no idea how Shikamaru knew what would fit, much less where he got them.

She didn't question it too much though, and instead just put the clothes on. Shikamaru gave her a red t-shirt and black sweatpants, both of which were extremely baggy. Once she was clothed, she made sure Nanami was dried off, and the two left the bathroom, taking the towels with them. As Aimi and Nanami made their way back to the foyer of the house, Aimi could hear the squad leader following behind her. They came to the foyer and she saw Shikamaru sitting in the living room on the couch with a man and woman — no doubt his parents.

"Um, hello," she said softly, drawing their attention to her.

His mother stood up quickly, and she saw that she was a very pretty woman with brown hair and dark eyes. She reminded Aimi a lot of Ren's mother. His mother came over to her, smiling lightly.

"You're Aimi," she said, "and this is your companion Nanami, correct?"

Aimi nodded. "Yes, ma'am, that's right."

She took the towels from Aimi. "You go sit down, and I'll take care of these towels — oh, and I hope you weren't alarmed by the bra and underwear. I ran out to the store and got you some clean clothes and such."

"Thank you," Aimi said as his mother hurried down the hall to where the washing machine must have been.

She awkwardly made her way to the couch and sat beside Shikamaru, who was looking rather bored. His father watched the two of them with an amused smile.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Aimi — Shikamaru was just telling us about you and Nanami," said his father. Then his face grew solemn. "I'm sorry to hear about your village and family — that on top of what happened to your teammates and sensei, I can't imagine what you must be going through right now."

Aimi just nodded and said, "Thank you — according the medical examiner that was at my house earlier today, my teammates and sensei will pull through. We were able to save their lives today."

"We?" said Shikamaru's father.

"Yes, we — Kiba, Shikamaru, and I used a simple jutsu and applied a basic first aid that helped stop the bleeding and repair the skin. I managed to teach them how to use the jutsu," said Aimi.

"That would explain why Shikamaru took a shower — you were covered in blood, weren't you?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "She needed my help, and then she was yelling, I wasn't about to deny it."

"I'm sure you would have been acting the same way if you were in my place," Aimi said with a small blush.

Shikamaru's mother returned at that time and sat down in the chair that was next to Shikamaru's father. "Aimi, I just want you to know that Shikamaru told us everything, and you are more than welcome to stay here as long as you two need," she said. "The jonin already stopped by while you in the shower and explained how everything is going to work with the ANBU and your protection. You'll be under the constant watch of, well, all of us."

Aimi nodded. "Yes, I know — and thank you for opening up your house to Nanami and me. We really need some friends — it's so nice of you to allow us to come into your home unexpected, and let us live here," said Aimi — her parents always told her to be exceptionally courteous to those in life who offered such kindness.

"Now, if you don't mind me asking, what happened when your village was raided?" said Shikamaru's father. His wife gave him a stern look, as if she thought the subject was taboo, but Aimi knew he was only curious.

"Well, a lot of things happened," she said softly. "Everyone in the village was killed — the only reason my team is alive is due to the fact that we were out training when the invasion started. When we got to town, everything was up in flames. We split up to go to our houses and see if anyone was alive. I arrived at my house in a matter of minutes and found it was already up in flames. I lived with my parents and little brother though, and I wasn't sure if they were alive or not. I ran into the house to look for them while Nanami searched for an exit from the outside."

"You ran into a burning building?" said his mother, sounding amazed.

Aimi nodded and continued. "I found my parents and their companions — my father was already dead, and their companions were dead as well, but my mother was still alive. I tried to heal her, but she said there was no time to save her and told me to get my brother. She — she died in my arms," Aimi said, looking down at her lap. The memories brought tears to her eyes.

"And then what?" said Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru," his mother said sharply, "we shouldn't push the subject. She obviously doesn't like talking about it."

"No, it's alright," said Aimi. "If I'm going to be living with you for a while, you might as well know why I'm here in this village anyway. . . . My brother was in the hallway closet, so I grabbed him and managed to make it out of the house before it collapsed on us. As Hiraku, Nanami, and I were making our way to find the rest of my team, we came across two S-rank criminals. They killed a mother and child and I — I was reckless and challenged them to a fight, which resulted in some pretty bad injuries. Luckily though, Takao-sensei came to my rescue, and they left. That's when Takao-sensei decided we'd move here. . . . It's hard to believe that was only a few days ago."

"I didn't realize you went through all that," said Shikamaru.

"Yeah," was all Aimi said.

Shikamaru's parents were obviously very surprised. His mother shook her head. "That's very — I'm so sorry about your parents — and now that your little brother is gone —"

"May I go to bed?" Aimi said quickly. "I'm really tired."

"Of course, dear — Shikamaru, show Aimi and Nanami to their room."

Shikamaru just sighed and stood from his seat, silently heading down the hall. Aimi and Nanami followed him and stopped when Shikamaru did. He opened the door to a cozy guest room and allowed the two to step inside. Almost immediately, they fell onto the bed, somewhat at peace. She looked out the only window in the room, which was stationed above her bed, and saw the sun was already setting — where did the time go?

"Happy?" said Shikamaru with a small amused grin.

"As happy as I can be," said Aimi, forcing a smile as she turned her attention to him.

The two were completely silent for a moment, just holding each other's gaze before the squad leader appeared behind Shikamaru, startling the genin.

"Well, good night," Shikamaru said.

"Good night, Shikamaru — thanks for everything."

Shikamaru just shrugged and left the room, and the squad leader stepped into Aimi's room and closed the door.

"So, tonight is the full moon," he said. "The Hokage said during the full moon you transform into a wolf, and you have no control over yourself, which means you'll explore the wilderness outside, correct?"

Aimi nodded. "That's right — at ten o'clock, I'll be sneaking out that window," she said while pointing to the window above her head. "Whenever the sun starts to rise, I'll transform back into a human — fair warning, I'll be naked, and so I would pick up my clothes as soon as I lose 'em if I were you. That is, if I'm correct in assuming you and your squad will be trailing me all night."

"That's correct," he said simply.

"Okay, well, be prepared to see me kill some things, and unless it's a person or someone's pet, I wouldn't recommend trying to stop me, because in wolf-form, I'm liable to attack anyone," Aimi told him. "Wake me up at nine forty-five, if you don't mind."

"Duly noted and will do, Miss Ookami," said the squad leader as he left the room to stand outside the door.

Aimi sighed and looked up at the ceiling — how long was she going to have to live like this? She looked at Nanami, who was making herself cozy on the pillow at the top of the bed, and Aimi dragged herself up next to her companion and closed her eyes, trying to get some rest before the clock struck ten.

* * *

**Hey guys! I just wanted to say thanks to those who have been following Aimi's story so far, and I hope you like this chapter! Things are going to get pretty interesting from here on out, so stay tuned for the weekly updates! Feel free to leave me a review, because I'd love to know what you guys think of the story so far! Alright, well, stay beautiful! See you next week!**


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